No messing around
by Bl4ckHunter
Summary: One-shot story. An old acquaintance opens Oliver's eyes and shows him the error of his choices in Season 3.


**Something that occured to me after reading _Stand with Ward and Queen's_ "_Like old times_". Some parts are taken from his older stories, "_The fate of the Green Arrow_" and "_Sara's aberration_". Hope it's fine if I use some of it.**

* * *

"Ra's al Ghul has died, my lady." A messenger from the League of Assassins announced, kneeling before Talia, whose face was stoic and showed no hint of loss, grief, anger or such, nodded.

"I see. Who is the new leader now?" Talia inquired.

"The Magician. Al Sa-Her." The messenger explained and Talia narrowed her eyes and for an instant, it could seem her eyes were throwing daggers, imagining Malcolm at the spot where the messenger was on his knees. _Of all people, him…_

"Malcolm Merlyn?" Talia asked, just to be sure.

"Yes." The messenger nodded.

"Thank you. You may return to Nanda Parbat." Talia said.

"Do you need me to deliver a message, my lady?" The messenger asked.

"No need, I shall send it in person." Talia said as she got up.

* * *

_**Ivy Town**_

Felicity was preparing lunch in the kitchen and Oliver was watching TV before the lights flickered.

"What the…"

When the lights stopped flickering, Felicity yelped as in the middle of the room suddenly appeared a woman that Oliver immediately recognized as his blood ran cold at seeing the woman with long brown hair in black leather suit, with a sheathed sword, a black hood, a compound bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back.

"Hello, Oliver. It's been a long time."

"Oliver, you know her?" Felicity demanded.

"Talia. What do you want?" Oliver asked, apprehensive as he got up from the couch.

"We need to talk." Talia said.

"Oliver, who is it?" Felicity asked.

"My name is Talia. I was one of the people, who trained Oliver." Talia said Felicity in a matter-of-fact tone. "I need to speak with him about an urgent matter."

"What urgent matter?" Oliver asked.

"One that concerns the Magician. And my father." Talia said.

"Father?" Oliver asked.

"I never told you my full name back in Russia, did I?" Talia asked.

"No." Oliver admitted.

"It's Talia al Ghul." Talia said and it suddenly hit both Oliver and Felicity like a truck.

"Ra's al Ghul was your father." Oliver realized.

"What do you want?" Felicity asked, now on full alert. "I swear, if you…"

"If I wanted Oliver dead, neither one of you would ever see it coming. And you'd be done before you could utter as much as a vowel, Miss Smoak." Talia said and Felicity shut up and paled and could feel herself shrink at the look Talia was giving her before she turned to Oliver. "Perhaps it might be best if we speak in private?"

* * *

"I must say, I've never expected you to become such a fool. Leaving behind your city in hands of a man, who has been holding onto a petty grudge, because you kidnapped his wife and left their child alone, even if you were trying to make sure everyone would survive? In addition to two novices, who have had only months of training at best and are nowhere as good as you or Miss Lance? You've become more foolish and naive than I remember you being." Talia scolded Oliver. "And how could you hand over the League to Mr. Merlyn after what he had done?"

Oliver reflected on what Talia had said and realized that in hindsight, most of his choices weren't as good as he had thought they were.

* * *

"Oliver, that's not who you are anymore." Felicity protested as Oliver was packing up.

"Think about it, Felicity. Do you think it's wise to let someone like Malcolm Merlyn lead the League?" Oliver demanded and Felicity realized he had a point.

"But killing? What if you become…"

"A monster?" Oliver asked rhetorically. "A friend once told me that to beat a monster, sometimes you must become a monster. And I'm gonna correct some past mistakes of mine, right now."

"But…"

"Felicity, open your eyes! John, Laurel and Thea are in over their heads! Do you have any better idea, that doesn't involve killing?!" Oliver demanded and Felicity was silent, no answer coming to mind.

"What happened to you?" Felicity asked, realizing he was more like when she first met him and found out who he was.

"I had my eyes opened." Oliver said.

* * *

_**Nanda Parbat**_

"You cannot be serious. You gave me the Ring of the Demon, remember?" Malcolm scoffed.

"I challenge you to the duel. Now. Here." Oliver said. "The only reason I let you live was because of my sister. But I'm gonna make sure you'll pay. For Dad. For Mom. For Sara. For my sister and Tommy and 502 innocents that you killed."

* * *

Oliver and Malcolm faced each other on the mountaintop, just like when Oliver challenged Ra's as Malcolm's men removed his cloak as Oliver and Malcolm stared at each other.

"You may not believe this but I'm truly sorry things are going to go down this way." Malcolm said.

"You're right. I don't believe you. I should have let China White and her men kill you. I should have killed you back in that factory last year. If I had, everything would be different. Tonight, I'm going to make sure you're going to pay, for everything and everyone you've taken away from me the people that I love." Oliver sneered as an assassin handed him a sword, while another handed Malcolm one too.

Oliver and Malcolm rushed at each other as their blades clashed and sparks flied as they parried each other's strikes. They appeared to be evenly matched before Oliver kicked Malcolm in the chest, making him stagger. Oliver dodged as Malcolm attempted to cut his head off and Oliver struck him in the face with the hilt of his sword.

Malcolm retreated, picking a bow an arrow from one of the assassins and fired at Oliver. Oliver deflected the arrow with his sword before he and Malcolm resumed their duel with their blades. Oliver dodged as Malcolm scratched his shirt and Oliver attempted a fierce strike as Malcolm dodged, when suddenly, Oliver twisted his wrist and Malcolm screamed and fell on his knees as his hand and his sword clattered to the ground and Malcolm held the stump where Oliver had cut his hand off.

"You've lost, Malcolm." Oliver said.

"Spare me the posturing and false sympathies, Oliver." Malcolm gloated. "We both know you won't do it. You spared the life of the man, who murdered your mother and you've had multiple chances to kill me."

"You murdered my father. My best friend. The woman I love. And you killed 503 innocent people and now you have the power to kill more. You pushed my sister towards the darker path. No prison can imprison you. With Slade Wilson I had a choice. With you, I don't." Oliver growled and drove the sword into Malcolm's chest and went up to make sure he had delivered the killing blow and Malcolm gasped as the blade pierced his heart before he fell down, bleeding out with a glassy look as the assassins bowed before Oliver, who removed the Ring of the Demon from Malcolm's finger and handed it to Nyssa.

"Thank you." Nyssa nodded.

"I better not regret this." Oliver said.

"You won't. You have my word, husband." Nyssa said.

* * *

_**Star City**_

Black Canary, Speedy and Spartan were running down the alley, being chased down by Ghosts, who were shooting at them before they saw Oliver, in green hood rappel down from above as he shot down the Ghosts.

"Thanks." Laurel said gratefully, her and Thea happy to see Oliver, Diggle more like annoyed.

"We had that." Diggle snapped.

"I'm sure you did." Oliver said sarcastically.

* * *

"You killed them." Diggle protested as he confronted Oliver.

"Only because they were about to kill you. If you don't like I did it, fine. But don't expect I'm not gonna do whatever it takes to save you, even if it means putting them down." Oliver said.

"You never listen to me! Never! I don't know why have I bothered for so long trying to turn you into something you're apparently not!" Diggle snarled, about to punch Oliver but Oliver easily dodged and grabbed Diggle by his jacket, slamming him to the ground, much to Thea's and Laurel's shock.

"Yeah, because I'm just as dark and twisted as Ra's and the League, am I?" Oliver scoffed, glaring. "On the contrary, I listened to you and Felicity for far too long and deluded myself into thinking that we can do this without killing. But either you're willing to do whatever it takes to save lives, or you shouldn't be out there at all."

"Ollie, that's enough." Laurel said as she and Thea stepped up. "Look, you shouldn't be so hard on him."

"You don't get to judge Dig, you have no idea what's been going on. And you don't get to judge us, because you're the one, who left." Thea sneered.

"And you weren't hard on me, even when I told you that you're not ready?" Oliver scoffed before turning to Diggle "For the reminder, John condemned me for kidnapping Lyla, even when I was trying to make sure everyone would make it out alive. You hate me for kidnapping your wife and leaving your daughter alone. But do you know what any other member of the League would've done? What Maseo wanted to do? They would've killed Lyla and taken Sara as a hostage instead! I was trying to make sure we'd all make it out alive!" Diggle paled before Oliver glared at his former lover and sister. "And you barely respected me as a fighter or a friend, once I came back, even when I told you that you're not ready and you had a stick so far up your ass that you thought you were as good as Sara, simply because you were calling yourself the Black Canary, despite that you could barely handle low-level street thugs."

Laurel winced, knowing Oliver had a point before he turned to his sister.

"And you turned your back on me and showed more loyalty and benefit of the doubt to the mass murderer, who killed hundreds of innocents, your friend and my Dad included, despite knowing what Malcolm was capable of, even after finding out that he had drugged you and manipulated you to kill Sara." Oliver scolded Thea, who stilled, shame flooding her, knowing he was right.

"So if anyone has no right to be hard on someone, it's the three of you on me because you all judged me and condemned me at every single turn, despite knowing how much in over your heads you were. And either you're gonna have to open your eyes and realize how much in over your heads you are or none of you deserve to go out there with your masks. It's no point to trust someone, who's got sticks so far up their asses and are so self-absorbed in their own egos. You need to wake up. Or I might as well do this all on my own." Oliver finished and left as Diggle, Laurel and Thea stared, stunned at what just happened before they all reflected on their own thoughts as shame filled them, realizing that every word Oliver said, was true.

* * *

**Oliver in Seasons 3-4 was a total wimp, who lost all his self-respect and I kind of enjoyed Talia in Season 5 flashbacks and in Season 7 in prison arc talking some sense into him.**

**If this had been Oliver from Seasons 1-2 or Season 6, he wouldn't tolerate anyone's crap and actually put them in their places. Plus, asides from shitty writing of MG/WM, it makes no sense Oliver would let Malcolm take over the Leauge at the end of Season 3 after what he had done, especially killing Sara and dragging Thea onto a path of darkness.**

**Hope Stand will not mind I used some of his work as an inspiration.**

**With regards**

**_Bl4ckHunter_**


End file.
